Temne language
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".<templatestyles src="Template:Infobox/styles-images.css" />Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters". Template:Infobox ethnonym Temne (also Themne, Timne; Script error: No such module "IPA".Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler[<span title="Script error: No such module "string".">missing the tones]Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".) is a language of the Mel branch of the Niger–Congo language family, spoken by the Temne people. Temne speakers live mostly in the Northern Province and Western Area, Sierra Leone. Temne people can be found in a number of other West African countries as well, including Guinea. Some Temnes have also migrated beyond West Africa seeking educational and professional opportunities, especially in Great Britain, and the United States.
Phonology
Temne is a tonal language. Among consonants, Temne distinguishes dental and alveolar, but, unusually, the dental consonants are apical and the alveolar consonants are laminal (and slightly affricated), the opposite of the general pattern, though one found also in the nearby language Limba.[1][2]
Consonants
Vowels
Tones
Temne has two tones: high and low.[3]
Writing
The alphabet of Temne includes the following characters and digraphs:[2]
| a | ʌ | b | d | e | ɛ | ə | f | gb | h | i | k | kp | l | m | n | ŋ | o | ɔ | p | r | s | t | th | u | w |
| A | Ʌ | B | D | E | Ɛ | Ə | F | Gb | H | I | K | Kp | L | M | N | Ŋ | O | Ɔ | P | R | S | T | Th | U | W |
Earlier,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Ȧȧ was used instead of Ʌʌ.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Oral literature
In 1861, C. F. Schlenker, a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, published a collection of Temne fables and proverbs in Temne with a facing-text English translation.[4] Schlenker's source was a Temne man living in Port Loko in the late 1840s; Schlenker explains that he was an old man already at that time. The book also contains some of Schlenker's translations from the Bible into Temne.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
In 1916 Northcote Thomas published his Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone; Part 2 contains a Temne-English dictionary[5] and Part 3 contains a grammar of Temne plus 27 stories told in Temne with interlinear English translation.[6] Many of the stories are about the trickster spider, called Script error: No such module "Lang". in Temne; the trickster spider is a popular character in the Temne, Vai, Mende, and Limba storytelling traditions of Sierra Leone.[7] In addition, Thomas's Specimens of Languages from Sierra Leone[8] contains tables comparing Temne vocabulary to Kissi and other related languages.
References
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Bibliography
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External links
- Temne Words and Phrases
- Grammar of the Temne language, 1864 – Rev. C. F. Schlenker
- CIA Sierra Leone file
- PanAfrican L10n page on Temne
- Listening example: Kassirie Stories
- OLAC resources in and about the Timne language
- Temne story "Mr. Spider and the Rotten Skin" with English rough translation
- Glottolog page for Timne
- Peace Corps Sierra Leone Temne Language Manual
- Lets Learn Thaymneh (Temne)
Template:Languages of Sierra Leone Template:Atlantic languages Template:Authority control